MY STUDIES

Monday, October 4, 2010

Childhood Education Programs

Nowadays, people with young children are increasingly finding themselves with quite a big number of early childhood programs they can choose to put the youngsters through. In this context, we are using the term 'early child education program' to refer to those programs that children go through prior to their joining the formal school system at grade one. The different early childhood education programs are usually based on quite different educational philosophies. They are also usually structured differently, and tailored  to offer the kids different types of information in readiness for their enrollment into the higher education systems.
Many people, now awake to the important role of child education in shaping up a person's feature, are expressing a strong desire in seeing that their kids go through decent ECD programs. Therefore many are known to proceed to the early childhood education centers, and pose questions on how the different childhood education systems work. But the answers given to those questions don't help them much, because a description of each early childhood program makes it seem alluring. That is especially the case, given the fact that the developers are always keen on putting very reasonable explanations for pretty much each and every aspect of their program.
At the end of the day, we know that some early child education programs are better than others. ECD programs whose graduates go on to become educational achievers can be termed as being amongst the best. ECD programs whose graduates, in addition to becoming educational achievers, also tend to become socially competent and physically active adults would also definitely qualify for a spot amongst the very best childhood education programs. There are therefore two main criteria through which we can judge the quality of an early child education program; criteria via which we can identify the best ECD programs over the rest.
As it turns out, the best ECD programs are those that are structured in a way that creates a genuine love for learning in their students. Kids are by nature curious, and the best ECD programs are created to arouse, rather than dull, that curiosity. Curiosity awakened, the best childhood education programs tend to go on to make the learning process  fun. This is as opposed to the archaic ECD programs that are known to make learning a chore for the kids. Now human nature inclines us to do things that are 'fun' to us, while disinclining us from doing things that are 'chore-some' to us. And attitudes we acquire early in our lives tend to be attitudes we hold and act on all our lives.
The best early child education programs are also those that are structured in such a way that the students who go through them develop a sense of balance throughout their lives. This is as opposed to some archaic childhood education that tended to insist on utmost concentration on academic matters, whilst discouraging social contact and physical activity. That could turn out to be counterproductive, and could breed truancy in the learners . It could also give, in the learners who chose to follow the dictates of the system keenly, a problem of lack of balance. That is where we end up with 'nerds' who are so focused on their work, intellectual or otherwise, to the detriment of the other aspects of their lives. But the best early child education programs, whilst encouraging keenness in educational pursuit, also strongly encourage balance.
(about writter)
By:-Heckman Thelma

School Fundraising Ideas

I thought this is the most obvious answer but I do not understand why it often gets overlooked. Parents will enjoy seeing their kid's artwork on display. There are many benefits to this activity. Firstly, it could raise the school's profile. Next, it encourages the children's parents to visit and interact with the school and mingle with other parents.
Venue
The most obvious and simple answer seems to be the school hall. But you could make it into something more prestigious by booking an exhibition hall, community centre or a town centre to add some aura of importance and significance to the event.
Artwork
Be sure to include at least one artwork from each student in the school. Think about it, if the artwork of my kid is not on display, why should I attend right? This is marketing tactic. Getting the kid to contribute something to the exhibition will get them thrilled and excited. The idea is to attract as many parents as possible and if possible their relatives or grandparents. The more people that attend means greater income for the school funds.
Advertising
Use all the channels you have access to. The most direct would be flyers to parents and to the public. You could also reserve a column in the newspaper. If you are more meticulous and want to attract the attention of the parents, you could come up with a nice custom printed card to distribute to the parents. But please bear in mind the costs involved and be sure to strike a balance as this is a fundraising event after all.
Setup
Mount it nicely onto the boards and be sure to include a nice little paper or card at the bottom of each artwork with the name and age of the artist. You could also group the drawings by age, class or category. Then you could place a title above each artwork to make it even more professional. Research a bit into professional art exhibitions for additional details to make your exhibition more professional.
Fundraising at the Exhibition
You could either get the attendees to pay a small sum as the entrance fee or you could ask for donations at the entry. A better idea could be to sell voting cards where people can vote for the best artwork and the most voted artwork will win a prize.


(about writter)
By:- Clarence Chua

Chore Charts For Children in Elementary School

Developing responsibility in children is important in most families. As I work with parents, grandparents, teachers and other caring adults who work with kids who are in school, I hear the following questions about responsibility;

How do I get my child to do homework
How do I get my child to clean his room
How do I get my child to do his chores
How do I get my child to feed the pet
How do I get my child to practice the piano
How do I get my child to speak to the family with respect
The problem is that responsible and acceptable behavior is different for every person and every child. When children are in school there are lots of new and exciting adventures that take their thoughts and energy away from the task at hand.
Difference between obedience and responsibility
One of the hardest lessons I ever had to learn is that you can't make anyone do anything long term. You can force your child to do their homework tonight by yelling, screaming and threatening, but I promise you he will dislike school and you. The difference between obedience and responsibility often comes down to this simple distinction, Who owns the problem. If you realize that the dog is hungry and you fix it by filling the food dish, but punish or yell at the child, you still own the problem. You will be telling the child to feed the pet every day and he will expect you to tell him and then lecture or else feed the dog.Obedience needs no agreement or buy-in from the child. The motivation comes from an outside force, in this case, you making the child feel guilty.
Responsibility, however, involves the acceptance and understanding of the natural (the dog has no way to feed himself) and logical (the child feeds the dog before he eats breakfast and dinner) consequences.Chore Charts Tell Child What Is Expected .When the parent is in the telling position and the child is in the doing position, which means the child won't do if the parent doesn't tell. The chore chart is a wonderful tool for pulling adults away from always telling the child what to do and when to do it. Chore charts shift the responsibility to the child and makes the chart the regulator and judge, not the adult.
Chore Charts or job lists or behavior calendars get the emotion out of the situation and strengthens both independence and responsibility. The best advantage of a chore chart that has been agreed on at a family council is the "buy-in" from all parties. Everyone knows what is expected to be done and the time frame for accomplishing said task and have decided and agreed on the consequences if it is not done.Schools are not the teachers of responsibility. Their job is to enhance what has already been learned and modeled in the home and care giving situations. Those of us who love the child need to find methods and techniques to help the child to assume personal responsibility for their decisions and actions. We increase the odds of teaching the child to work independently by being consistent and realistic in our expectations.

(about writter)
By:-Judy H.Wright 

Science for Kids

People are unique in the animal kingdom in that knowledge is passed from one generation to the next by recorded culture. People can explore, invent, experiment, record, accumulate knowledge and pass on this recorded knowledge to help them better exploit their environment and make sense of life, thus increasing their chances of success. Mastery of accumulated knowledge over generations requires intentional learning, invariably in a formal educational setting. And this is no different to primary school education. The more advanced concepts in science such as electricity, photosynthesis, chemical reactions would definitely fall into the category of recorded culture. Some of these subjects are beyond the daily experience of young learners, with no instantly recognisable markers to create a quick understanding. The role of the teacher is often creating a bridge to the youngsters' world through analogies with which they are familiar.
Students may come to the classroom with preconceived notions of how the world around them works and if their initial understanding is not engaged, they fail to grasp the basic concepts. They may take on board the new information superficially or they may learn for the purposes of a test, but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom.
The images from a children's story, Fish is Fish, can help convey the essence of the above principles. In this story a young fish is very curious about the outside world and his good friend the frog returns from the land, telling the fish excitedly.
'I've been about the world, hopping here and there and seeing extraordinary things'.
'Like what?' asked the fish.

'Birds', said the frog mysteriously.
'Birds!' and he described birds to the fish, with wings that could fly in the sky, with two legs and many colours. As the frog talked, his friend visualised birds flying through the sky with wings, fish heads and bodies covered in scales.
Clearly all new understandings are based on a foundation of existing knowledge and experience and the younger the child, the narrower the foundation tends to be. Understanding how children actively learn from the earliest days of life can help in education strategies when at school. Research studies have demonstrated that infants as young as 3 to 4 months develop an understanding and expectations of the physical world. For example, by repeatedly throwing objects from their cot they understand that objects need support to prevent them falling to the ground; that stationary objects need a force applied to them to move; and the direction of that force will determine the direction of motion.
Young minds are easily distracted and have short attention spans. The trick is to get them engaged in whatever way possible, such as group activity, experiments they can perform or design themselves, or field trips where there is a high degree of self-participation. This will imitate the ways of learning of a toddler, such as discovering gravity by repeatedly throwing objects out of a cot. In turn, that knowledge could eventually become the students' understanding of Newtonian physics theory. In the longer term, as that person develops yet further layers of understanding can be built on that base, be it Astro-physics, relativity theory, or quantum mechanics.

(about writter)
By:-Hannah McCarthy

Etiquette School For Children

An etiquette school for children specializes in teaching a specific set of social skills to children. You can find an etiquette school in nearly every part of the country. Their lessons vary, but eventually, there is convergence between all of them.The best etiquette schools are capable of training even the youngest children in the proper way of behaving when in the presence of other people. The main advantage of such schools is that they provide an authority figure to the children. This is a well-known phenomenon - children are actually more receptive to authority figures outside their home.When you enroll your child in such a school, expect that there are group classes and one-on-one coaching. The power of the lessons is often developed during the one-on-one coaching, where children are motivated to practice proper etiquette because it matters.
We believe that these schools are important because really, good manners are not hardwired into a human's brain. They must be learned, remembered, applied and constantly enforced.
What does an etiquette school offer? Usually, the school divides the lessons into distinct phases. The first phase usually involves a discussion of why proper etiquette must be learned.
Children are given a variety of situations and the coaches ask questions about what the best behaviors could be in such situations. To encourage openness, role-playing games are also used to enhance the learning experience. This phase of the learning of proper etiquette may include grooming lessons, lessons on how to dress up properly for social occasions, etc.
After a fun introduction to proper etiquette, an etiquette consultant or coach may move on to discussing how to best behave in public. Children are taught how they can be kinder and more polite in their everyday life.
Simple things like asking gently when they want something, or being a good sport when playing with friends has a huge impact on how children are understood and accepted into social circles. By removing the 'edge' associated with ultra-modern living  a child is taught that there are other ways of approaching ordinary situations.After discovering the various gems of proper etiquette that can be used in the public setting, coaches 'zoom in' on individual aspects of daily living, such as eating out in a fine restaurant. Table manners are taught. This is not about merely knowing which fork to use when eating dinner. It's about being polite enough during mealtime that a child can eat with anybody without running the risk of offending anyone.
(Article writer)
(By:- Dawnya Sasse )

Education Of Handicapped Children

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act seeks to assure equal opportunity in education for all handicapped children between the ages of five and eighteen, and in most cases for children 3-5 and 18-21 as well. Handicapped children may not be excluded from public school because of their disability and school districts are required to provide special services to meet the needs of handicapped children. The law requires that handicapped children be taught in a setting that resembles as closely as possible the regular school program, while also meeting their special needs. Programs vary according to the individual needs of the special student. Some handicapped children may be placed in a regular classroom, but have special resources available to them; other students may need training at a special school. The law provides for screening so that children with special needs are recognized and treated accordingly. The law also requires that an Individualized Education Program (IEP) be developed for each special needs student, with input from the student and student's parents. Students must have access to specialized materials and equipment if necessary, such as Braille books for blind students. Handicapped students are also entitled to have specially trained teachers to meet their particular needs. The law provides for ongoing monitoring of the handicapped student's program and an appeals process for both the school and the parents of the handicapped child, so that no child is put in or kept out of special education without the consent and agreement of parents and teachers.
During the first years of a child's life, the brain is still malleable and able to form important connections so that the child can learn a wide variety of information and abilities. However, if the child suffers from an illness, injury, or condition that causes a disability, it can interfere with his or her ability absorb information in the same way as non-disabled children. Special education classes can help children with disabilities learn in a way tailored to their needs.
In 1975, the U.S. government first legally addressed special education in public schools with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, or EHA. This included both physically and mentally handicapped children. The act stated that all schools receiving public funding must have programs specifically created for special needs children. These lesson plans were developed with the help of parents so that disabled children had as much of a normal education as possible. The EHA was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act  in 1990.

Early childhood education

Early childhood education often focuses on children learning through play.According to UNESCO ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) Unit, Early childhood is defined as the period from birth to 8 years old. A time of remarkable brain development, these years lay the foundation for subsequent learning.The terms preschool education and kindergarten emphasize education around the ages of 3–6 years. The terms "early childhood learning,"early care," and "early education" are comparable with early childhood education. The terms Day care and Childcare do not embrace the educational aspects. Many childcare centers are now using more educational approaches. They are creating curricula and incorporating it into their daily routines to foster greater educational learning.Researchers in the field and early childhood educators both view the parents as an integral part of the early childhood education process.Early childhood education takes many forms depending on the beliefs of the educator or parent.
Much of the first two years of life are spent in the creation of a child's first "sense of self" or the building of a first identity.This is a crucial part of children's makeup—how they first see themselves, how they think they should function, how they expect others to function in relation to them. For this reason, early care must ensure that in addition to employing carefully selected and trained caretakers, program policy must emphasize links with family, home culture, and home language, meaning caregivers must uniquely care for each child using Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Individually Appropriate Practice and Culturally Appropriate Practice. Care should support families rather than be a substitute for them.
If a young child doesn't receive sufficient nurturing, nutrition, parental/caregiver interaction, and stimulus during this crucial period, the child may be left with a developmental deficit that hampers his or her success in preschool, kindergarten, and beyond.Worst-case scenarios such as those found in Russian and Romanian orphanages demonstrate how the lack of proper social interaction and development of attachment affect the developing child.Children must receive attention and affection to develop in a healthy manner.